The manga forum RPG, Anime, Own Stories continued (RAOSC) will be holding a writing tourney from June 16 to August 15. Below are the details if you are interested!

Reading and voting period for Round 1 has begun! New matches are pinned. PM your votes to RAOSC Manager-chan!

This is all you need to know about this summer's battle-themed, death match, team-based, Holy Grail War tourney.

Though inspired by the F/SN verse, this tourney does not strictly follow it. Everything you need is on this post, with F/SN knowledge not required.

Committee's account, RAOSC Manager-chan where all pieces and votes must be submitted to.

Committee:

1. Boomer Kid

2. UnknownGuy960

3.

Table of contents

FORMAT, REGISTRATION, PROFILES:

1.1: Tournament format (Number of writers, rounds, word limits and word floors)

1.2: Registrations. Template for character profiles is provided here. Any express instructions on the template MUST be followed

1.3: Specific piece regulations (Death match must be followed)

1.4: Voting

1.5: Submission of pieces

1.6: Tourney schedule

1.7: Tourney archive

SETTING

2.1: Akaki City and Mages' Association

2.2: How a Master is chosen and how a Servant is summoned

2.3: Other Master requirements

2.4: Other Servant requirements

2.5: War progression

ABILITIES

3.1: Abilities through the bond between Master and Servant

3.2: Mana

3.3: Master's Command spells

3.4: Servant's Spirit Form

3.5: SERVANT CLASSES AND ABILITIES (Details of Servant classes provided!)

3.6: Servant's Noble Phantasm

3.7: Discussion on characters and possible suggestions for balancing

FORMAT, REGISTRATION, PROFILES

1.1: Tournament format

(a) 16 writers, each with a team of two characters: one Master, and one Servant.

- (i)Writers are free to enter any original or public domain (e.g. Hercules, King Arthur, Robin Hood…) characters, with their own abilities. Servants will have additional class abilities provided by one of the seven Servant classes.

- (ii) Servant abilities are provided under section 3.5: SERVANT CLASSES AND ABILITIES

- (iii) Writers are free to strategize how their team will work together.

(b) 4 rounds. Death match. Each match consisting of a duel between two teams until one team is eliminated via the death of either the Master, the Servant, or both, with the winning team advancing further in the war. A team loses if at least one member of the team dies.

(i) Losing writers of each match will be eliminated from the tourney.

(c) The writer must stay with their team of Master and Servant throughout the duration of the tourney. No changes may be made to the team after registrations are finalized.

(d) Graduated word limits and word floors. The word caps are hard word caps. Word limits may not be exceeded, and word floors must at least be reached, otherwise pieces may be disqualified:

- (i) Word limits: Introductory piece, or *Preliminary—3150 words. First round—3650 words. Second round—6500 words. Third round—8500 words. Final—12550 words.

- (ii) Word floors: Introductory piece, or *Preliminary—1500 words. First round—1500 words. Second round—2000 words. Third round—3000 words. Final—4000 words.

Round will be held if registrations exceed 16 writers by the registration due date. In that case, the introductory piece will be used for the preliminaries.

~o~

1.2: Registrations

(a) The tournament will consist of 16 writers. However, registrations may exceed 16 writers, in which a preliminary round will be held to narrow the field down to 16 writers.

(b) Registrations will begin on 16 June, 00:00am EST, and will end on 23 June, 11:59pm EST.

(c) Each writer must submit one team of one Master and one Servant. On 16 June, 00:00am EST, a forum topic named 'TOURNEY 4: CHARACTER PROFILES' will be created. The writer must prepare complete character profiles for each character and include both profiles in one post and post it on TOURNEY 4: CHARACTER PROFILES in order to register.

- *If your profile is deemed incomplete, you will be notified by the committee and will not be registered until your profile is deemed complete.

Any other posts on TOURNEY 4: CHARACTER PROFILES will be deleted.

(d) A template to write your character profiles is provided here. Any express instructions on the template MUST be followed.

(e)

- (i) In the event less than 16 registrations are received by 23 June, 11:59pm EST, registrations will remain open until 28 June, 11:59pm EST, OR until 16 registrations are eventually received.

- (ii) Otherwise, any amount of unique registrations will be taken until 23 June, 11:59pm EST sharp.

- (iii) In the event there are more than 16 registrations by the due date, a preliminary round will be held to narrow the field down to 16 writers.

(f) Before registrations are due, writers are free to amend their character profiles posted on 'TOURNEY 4: CHARACTER PROFILES'. Amendments posted anywhere else will be ignored.

(g) While the tournament profiles should give writers a good impression of everyone's characters, how strictly you want to adhere to the information given is up to your discretion. However, it may affect people's assessment of your pieces.

(h) The committee is free to take issue with any of the registrations and ask that they be amended if necessary. For example, if express instructions in the template are not followed, the writer will be notified by the committee to make the necessary corrections.

~o~

1.3: Specific piece regulations

(a) Opponents must be in battle with each other in their respective tourney pieces, the end result of each match being the defeat of their opponent and the progression of the winning team further in the war. The defeated Master and Servant must no longer feature physically or directly in any future Tourney 4 pieces.

(b) *A team is defeated via the death of the Master, the death of the Servant, or both, any of these cases leading to the elimination of the team from the war.

(c) Masters and Servants are not allowed to forfeit from the war. For Masters, this will be from the time Command Spells start appearing on their body (more on this in 2.2, 2.5, and 3.3). For Servants, this will be from the time they are summoned to serve a Master.

(d) Teams may interact with each other, give hints to each other, but teams must never be in an alliance with each other. Alliance meaning: a partnership formed for mutual benefit in achieving the Holy Grail or progressing through the war. In universe, any masters or servants found collaborating with opposing teams will be disqualified.

(e) Writers MUST NOT include Masters or Servants NOT SPECIFIED to feature in their matches.

- (i) Each match must feature the two teams of Masters and Servants specified to feature in the match, but MUST NOT physically or directly feature other Masters or Servants not specified to feature in the match.

- (ii) In your introductory piece, you are not allowed to feature characters of any other team other than your own. Both your Master and Servant MUST feature in your introductory piece.

(f) All entries must not have explicit sexual content. Explicit sexual content meaning explicit graphic depictions of sexual acts.

The committee will be free to disqualify entries that they deem as not meeting these above criteria.

~o~

1.4: Voting

(a) Voting on pieces will be made via PMs to the committee's account, RAOSC Manager-chan.

(b) Writers are not allowed to vote for themselves.

(c) Committee members are banned from voting.

(d) Here is the recommended format of voting:

Subject: Insert the title of the match as named in the match. For example: Round 1, Match 9000: Boomer Fried Chicken vs. Boonana

Message: The writer you are voting for. For example: Assume you are voting for the above match, write either Boomer Fried Chicken or Boonana. For each match, you must only vote for one writer. In the case of the above match, you have to decide between Fried Chicken and Banana. You cannot advance both to the next round.

(e) You are not allowed to amend your vote after sending it to the committee's account. This is a restriction brought upon by the ideology of democracy that must be imposed on all of its oppressed followers.

(f) However, the tourney committee may take issue with your vote and ask that you make any corrections if necessary. The committee may also declare your vote void for whatever reason. But don't worry, the tourney committee is a very fair committee. Upupu.

~o~

1.5: Submission of pieces

(a) All pieces should be submitted via DocX to the committee's account. Once you are registered to participate in the tourney, the moment you are required to start writing your introductory piece on 24 July, please create a DocX connection with RAOSC Manager-chan the committee's account.

~o~

1.6: Tourney schedule

IMPORTANT! If you do not submit a piece by the due date for the knockout rounds, you will be automatically eliminated. No extra opportunity to re-enter the tourney will be given.

- 24 June, 00:00am EST – 29 June, 11:59pm EST: Writing period for introductory pieces. (Word limit: 3150 words. Word floor: 1500 words.)

WHAT TO WRITE IN YOUR INTRODUCTORY PIECE:

- (i) Your introductory piece should include details of how your Master summoned their Servant and entered the war, with at least a mention of the team having to travel to Akaki in order to take part in the war.

- (ii) In your introductory piece, you are not allowed to feature characters of any other team other than your own. Both your Master and Servant MUST feature in your introductory piece.

You will not be eliminated if you do not submit your introductory pieces on time. However, it is the committee's policy to ensure that every writer gets a sufficient amount of information from each other. For example, if your opponent is devoid of helpful information that might've been available if you had an introductory piece, you would be asked to provide your opponent with any relevant information they want.

- In the case of preliminaries when there are over 16 registrations by 23 June, 11:59PM EST (this is a KNOCKOUT ROUND):

- 24 June, 00:00am EST – 26 June, 11:59pm EST: Writing period for introductory pieces, which will be put up for voting in the preliminary round. Your introductory piece will also be your preliminary piece..

- 27 June, 00:00am EST – 29 June, 11:59pm EST: Voting period for preliminary pieces. All votes must be sent to the committee's account via PMs, which will be linked at the top of the posts for each match.

PROTIP: Start writing your introductory pieces now. It is the only piece in this tourney that does not depend on the characters of other writers.

- Schedule is then as follows:

- 30 June, 00:00am EST – 5 July, 11:59pm EST: Writing period for Round 1. (Word limit: 3650. Word floor: 1500.)

- 6 July, 00:00am EST – 10 July, 11:59pm EST: Reading and voting period for Round 1. (8 matches. 2 matches posted each day. 2 voting day per match.)

- 11 July, 00:00am EST – 19 July, 11:59pm EST: Writing period for Round 2. (Word limit: 6500. Word floor: 2000.)

- 20 July, 00:00am EST – 24 July, 11:59pm EST: Reading and voting period for Round 2. (4 matches. All matches put up together day. 5 voting days.)

- 25 July, 00:00am EST – 2 August, 11:59pm EST: Writing period for Round 3. (Word limit: 8500. Word floor: 3000.)

- 3 August, 00:00am EST – 6 August, 11:59pm EST: Reading and voting period for Round 3. (2 matches. Both matches put up together. 4 voting days.)

- 7 August, 00:00am EST – 16 August, 11:59pm EST: Writing period for Final. (Word limit: 12500. Word floor: 4000.)

- 17 August, 00:00am EST – 20 August, 11:59pm EST: Reading and voting period for Final. (1 match. 4 voting days.)

The road to becoming the champion of the Holy Grail War gets more perilous with every next round. Manage your time well, write your best, and have fun.

~o~

1.7: Tourney archive

(a) All matches, winning and losing, will be compiled and archived on a thread titled TOURNEY 4 COMPILATION THREAD. However, we will not reserve intellectual property rights on your precious pieces. They will remain your intellectual property, which the forum promises not to steal.

However, the forum does reserve the right to post your pieces on the compilation thread for all of history to see.

SETTING

2.1: Akaki City and Mages' Association

(a) The war will take place in a fictional Japanese city named Akaki beginning in the summer, which the teams must eventually travel to in order to do battle. Akaki is located somewhere in the metropolitan area of East Japan, near Tokyo. Akaki is where the Holy Grail will eventually be summoned at the war's end. The general setting is that it is a present-day, civilized Japanese urbanization. Writers are thus free to build the city as they wish, something like a sandbox.

(b) A guild called the Mages' Association is said to be overseeing the war with an interest in the Holy Grail. Their base is said to be in England. Magic is not public knowledge in the world, and the Mages' Association overseeing the war will provide clean-up operations and more to ensure the existence of magic does not get out to the public. The Mages' Association WILL warn and may eventually hunt down individuals they deem as posing a danger of revealing the existence of magic, the war, or the association to the world. Masters and servants are thus encouraged to do their battles away from the eyes of the public. The Mages' Association may contact Masters via any means, especially on matters regarding the Master's participation in the war, but there is no one prominent overseer in the war.

~o~

2.2: How a Master is chosen and how a Servant is summoned

(a) The Holy Grail chooses 16 Masters to participate in the war, whether the Master is willing to or conscious of it or not.

(b) Three Command Spells (more info on 3.3), the mark of a Master participating in the Holy Grail War, first appear as bruise-like marks on any part on the Master's body. Eventually, the marks turn into tattoos of any mark or shape.

(c) With Command Spells, Masters are thus fated to summon a Servant, whether consciously or unconsciously. It is up to the writers to determine how the Servants are summoned.

(d) Once a Servant is summoned by a Master, a spiritual bond is formed between Master and Servant, only breakable at the deaths of either of them. This seals their partnership in the Holy Grail War.

~o~

2.3: Other Master requirements

(a) All Masters must at least possess mana, which allows them to learn and use magic abilities.

(b) As such, this makes original tourney abilities outside of canon stories possible. Your Servant may also have tourney-original abilities.

~o~

2.4: Other Servant requirements

(a) Writers may write their own original backgrounds on how their characters became Servants/are chosen to become Servants, and how is it they are able to be summoned into the war.

(b) All Servants must possess mana, again allowing for original tourney abilities if necessary. More information on simple battle mechanics will be included in the ABILITIES section.

~o~

2.5: War progression

(a) First, Masters are chosen by the Holy Grail and given three command spells each. The Master's participation in the War is absolute once command spells begin appearing on their body.

(b) Each Master will then summon one Servant, and both will be bound together until the War's end, or their defeat.

(c) The War officially begins when 16 teams of Master and Servant are finalized.

(d) No teams participating in the War may forfeit. No changes may be made to any teams.

(e) The war will end and the winner declared once there is only one team of Master and Servant remaining.

(f) At the end of the war, the Holy Grail will be summoned somewhere in Akaki.

(g) The Holy Grail is purported to grant a wish (or even wishes?) to both the winning Master and Servant at the war's end.

(h) This is a simple outline of the war. Other than that, writers are free to write their own plots and intrigue as long as it maintains this outline.

ABILITIES

3.1: Abilities through the bond between Master and Servant

(a) A Master and Servant is bound by a spiritual/magical link, allowing them to:

- (i) Transfer mana from one to the other

- (ii) Share senses such as sight, hearing, smell, and possibly even taste and touch. The writer is free to vary the effectiveness of how well their characters are able to share senses

- (iii) Share thoughts. Also subject to writer's interpretation.

- (iv) Communicate via telepathy no matter how far they are from each other.

~o~

3.2: Mana

(a) All of a Master's magical spells, and all of a Servant's abilities, use mana.

(b) If either the Master or Servant runs out of mana, the magical link between the both of them can no longer be maintained, and the Servant will thus perish. This means the elimination of the team from the war.

(c) Servants gradually consume mana to remain in the world. It is up to the Master to regularly supply them with mana.

(d) Alternatively, it is said any living being's life force can be converted to mana, which may be taken by Servants.

(e) Servants may better conserve or replenish mana by going into Spirit Form (see 3.4).

~o~

3.3: Command spells

(a) Command Spells are given to Masters selected by the Holy Grail. They will first appear as bruises and will eventually morph into tattoos of any mark or shape at any part of a Master's body to signify they are a Master.

(b) Masters may only have their contract with their Servant broken on two occasions:

- (i) At the death of their Servant

- (ii) At the death of the Master

- (iii) It is unknown whether the contract will be broken should the team win the War

(c) The three command spells also function as absolute order spells from a Master to their Servant. A Master thus has three absolute order spells they can choose to use on their Servant.

- (i) The effectiveness of the order, however, still depends on the nature of the order and how it is worded. But in general, they are orders the Servant cannot disobey, no matter how much they struggle against it or are unwilling to perform it. A specific order that is within the realm of imagined possibility is usually effective.

(d) If a Master's Servant dies, the Master loses all their Command Spells and can no longer take part in the war for the Holy Grail.

(e) Masters may not gain extra Command Spells or regain lost Command Spells.

~o~

3.4: Servant's Spirit Form

(a) All Servants have the ability to enter into spirit form.

(b) Spirit form makes the Servant invisible to the naked eye.

(c) In spirit form, Servants heal, conserve and replenish mana better, but all their senses are dulled and they are unable to attack other people or use debilitating abilities on other people.

(d) Servants in spirit form are still detectable and vulnerable to other Masters and Servants, vulnerable meaning they may still be attacked by other Masters and Servants.

(e) Only Masters and Servants can spiritually detect the presences of other Servants, the degree of ability to do so being up to the writer's interpretation of their character's abilities. Even the best of mages may not be able to detect Servants.

(f) Masters however, may be able to conceal themselves from spiritual/magical detection by decreasing their output of mana.

~o~

3.5: SERVANT CLASSES AND ABILITIES

(a) Servants are divided among seven classes, each with their own special class abilities. It is up to the authors to decide which classes their Servants will be, as long as they are one of the seven listed classes.

(b) However, Servants should also come with their own personal abilities.

(c) A Servant's class should best reflect their mode of combat and "legend". However, you don't need to strictly dictate your characters and pieces based on the following class attributes and abilities; they are merely some interesting battle characteristics of the war.

(d) While the conditions to qualify for a class and the class abilities are described, the writer has some room to decide how much the class abilities affect the Servants and how the Servants use them.

(e) Each Servant also comes with one Noble Phantasm (see 3.6).

(f) Once assigned to a class, a Servant's class can no longer be changed. Below are the seven listed Servant classes:

~o~

Saber: One of the three Knight classes along with Lancer and Archer. Servants placed in this class are required to be quick, powerful warriors adept in swordsmanship or close range melee combat, and must have high combat attributes, though not necessarily in magic. The three Knight classes are said to have the highest combat attributes. Saber's class attributes are said to make it the most defensive servant.

Class abilities:

(i) Magic Resistance weakening most magic targeted at them in various degrees; shared with Lancer and Archer.

(ii) Vitality: Known for great endurance, Sabers generally are the best at standing firm in direct combat, being able to take more damage than the other Servants.

~o~

Lancer: Servants in this class are required to be agile warriors specializing in long range melee weapons like the spear. A Knight class, they have high combat attributes.

Class abilities:

(i) Also a Knight class, they come with Magic Resistance.

(ii) Battle Continuation: Arguably said to be the most agile of the Knight classes, Lancers are the best at retreating from direct combat and returning alive, even after suffering the most severe of injuries. Because of this, servants in the Lancer class have a higher potential of reappearing in direct combat.

~o~

Archer: The third servant among the three Knight classes. To qualify, their defining feature must be the use of any projectile weapons or special abilities pertaining to projectile weapons. They are also said to possess the best eyes.

Class abilities:

(i) Magic Resistance.

(ii) Independent Action: Their main class ability which allows them to act independently for the most length of time among all the Servants even without an active supply of mana from their Master. This makes them the class requiring the least mana usage.

~o~

Caster: Servants placed in this class must be adept in magecraft to levels of mastery beyond those of the other classes. Prone to be underestimated due to the presence of the Knight classes having magic resistance. However, in addition to their magic abilities, their class abilities greatly augment their ability to dictate not only individual battles, but also the entire battlefield.

Class abilities:

(i) Territory Creation: Alters the surrounding lands in favor of their magical deeds. If powerful enough, a Caster may be able to construct "illusionary worlds" and summon affected individuals to them.

(ii) Siphon Mana: Imbue their attacks with the ability to deplete their opponents' mana and transfer it to the Caster, but in small quantities. However, it could still be a nuisance to teams lacking in desired mana management.

~o~

Rider: To qualify, the Servant must be known for riding mounts, living beasts, or human constructs to highly adept levels.

Class abilities:

(i) Riding Mastery: In addition to making excellent use of the mounts they're most accustomed to, Riders are able to learn and utilize possibly almost any mount to highly skilled levels.

(ii) Mount Repair: The best at maintaining most mounts, as well as salvaging and rebuilding most destroyed mounts.

~o~

Assassin: The silent killers. Assassins must be highly skilled in operating covertly and stealthily. To make up for only having one class ability, they are said to be most deadly class for targeting Masters.

Class abilities:

(i) Presence Concealment: Unique skill allowing Assassins to become undetected by other Masters and Servants, even magically/spiritually. Very useful for spying. However, when the Assassin becomes poised to attack, this ability weakens.

~o~

Berserker: Mad warriors. Berserkers can be summoned either via Mad Enhancement during the summoning process, or the Servant must have gone berserk in battle at least once during their lifetime. Their class ability, Mad Enhancement, enhances all their attributes and abilities, at the cost of most if not all of their consciousness. Hard to tame, but supposedly highly obedient once done so.

Class abilities:

(i) Mad Enhancement: Enhances all of the Berserker's attributes and abilities, at the cost of most of their sanity.

~o~

3.6: Servant's Noble Phantasm

(a) A Noble Phantasm is essentially a Servant's most powerful weapon or ability taking up the most mana out of all their abilities, at least three quarters of it.

(b) It is said a Servant's Noble Phantasm is based on two things, their assigned class, and their "legend" which sometimes may override their assigned class.

~o~

3.7: Discussion on characters and possible suggestions for balancing

(a) Once profiles are posted, the community will be free to comment on the characters, including discussing whether a Servant's abilities and/or strength of their abilities matches their assigned class or "character". A Servant's personal abilities don't necessarily have to be limited to their assigned classes, but it is assumed that most of their defining abilities would match their assigned classes, with other abilities balanced accordingly.

(b) The committee, through unanimous decision within the committee, is free to take issue with anything regarding the character profiles.

A final reminder that the template for character profiles is provided here. Any express instructions on the template MUST be followed.

Writers are recommended to discuss their characters with one another, especially with their opponents.